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New to this, and no energy :(

Hi everyone,

I am newbie to raw eating. I have been a vegetarian all my life (since my parents are), and so I am used to eating fruits and vegetables.

I started on my raw diet just 2 days back and now I have no energy .

I have been eating the green smoothie in the morning, followed by fruits in the day, and large salad for dinner.

also a few almonds. I feel full and dont feel hungry. However I calculated and I have eaten only about 900 calories per day, so that is definitely where the weakness is coming from.

I dont know what to eat to add up the calories, could someone please sugguest a few things.

Thanks a lot

Comments

  • joannabananajoannabanana Raw Newbie

    Your body is used to eating cooked foods and when you replace your meals with raw foods, you get fuller much quicker. I had to re-learn how to eat because your stomach is designed to hold a lot much more food than you're eating. On a raw diet, I believe you shouldn't get hungry. I eat every few hours so I stay energized and don't get a dizzy feeling. Before going raw, I used to have a bowl of cereal with a banana and berries. I would feel full from it because the cereal was cooked. Now, my breakfast is a smoothie with about 6-8 bananas blended with water. I feel satisfied, but not like my stomach is gonna burst. And it's 800 calories right there already.

  • oh wow a smoothie with 6-8 bananas, thats a great idea for me, as I LOVE banana smoothie too :D , but with that many bananas how many glasses is it there ? I am making a smoothie with just 2 bananas and thats a big tall glass already and it makes me full for breakfast for now .. but that I could surely up it slowly..

    could you tell me what do you have for lunch and dinner as well ? and how do you get your greens ? thanks a lot ..

  • Oooo put your greens in your smoothies! It's so good and easy to just sneak them in there to make sure you're getting plenty! I personally prefer spinach in mine because it's not an overpowering flavor in the smoothie.

    As far as calories...just take your typical day of food that you already mentioned and modify each meal a little to add more calories in. Adding more bananas is a good idea but I wonder about having lots of excess smoothie left over too. I've discovered adding a little raw tahini in my smoothies gives it an enjoyable, nutty flavor and there are other little things like that you can add in your smoothies too (check out some of the recipes on this site for ideas--there are TONS). I am a fan of just plain fruit during the day as well. You could add some dried fruit in there for calories, personally dried fruit is more of a once and awhile thing for me but you might enjoy it more often. For your dinner salad, add some seeds or dried fruit or experiment with different dressings (sorry I'm not being too specific here).

    I know there was another thread around here concerning caloric intake...I'll try and find the link for that too

  • joannabananajoannabanana Raw Newbie

    i usually drink my smoothie throughout the morning. i have class every day at 10, so i have a glass at 9:15 in the morning and bring the rest in this big thermos for after class. i usually have enough for 3-4 large glasses depending on how many bananas i use. when i'm at school, my lunch is always fruit. it's easy to take with me. i like having a whole honeydew melon for lunch or a canteloupe. some days, i'll bring a bag of grapes with me or a few bananas (i'm so obsessed with them haha) if i get hungry. my dinner is always a massive salad. i get these 1 lb containers of spinach/spring mix at the store and eat 1/2 of that for dinner. it's a crapload of greens but they're delicious. i usually have it with one avocado that i make guacamole with and a bunch of different vegetables.

    the days i don't have school (the weekend), i make a smaller smoothie because i'm not away from home. it's usually 3-4 bananas and some berries. lunch and dinner are both salads or zucchini pasta. i like having the time to make pasta because it's so good. i don't eat any nuts or seeds so i try to get all my calories from fruit and veggies. the one food that i love and has a lot of calories are dates. i can hardly keep them in the house because i'll eat a whole bag of them.

  • If you are worried about raw food calories try to go to this site http://www.4livefoodfactorfriends.com/ and if you sign up on the site (it's free) they should send you an e-mail with free pdf files of all kinds of raw and natural hygine information one is a raw food calorie guide try it out .

  • valgal123valgal123 Raw Newbie

    I have been having the same problem and I'm on my 8th day of being raw. I have a green smoothie in the morning with 1 T flax oil and 1 T coconut oil for calories. Lunch is a salad with ethier avocado or a nut dressing to add calores with some sort of raw dessert like an ani phyo donut hole or chocolate pudding or dates. Snack is another smoothie. Dinner is a salad or maybe a fancy recipe (salad same as lunch) (dessert same as lunch) and snack #2 is fruit and snack #3 (because I'm hungery) is usually nuts or nut butter. I usually eat when I'm not hungery to add more calories.

  • luxdivonluxdivon Raw Newbie

    Hi:) I just finished the master cleanse, and it might help while you're still transitioning to do one glass of lemonade the master cleanse style with water, fresh lemon, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. It's extremely filling, and also gives you lots of energy (via the maple syrup i think) Just another idea how to help get the energy back while you're still adjusting. Also it's super easy to make, and you can take it with you wherever you go.

  • thanks a TON everyone for your suggestions, I am going to use them and post how I feel in a few days ..

    ciao :)

  • One thing to consider is a type of raw eating called 80/10/10.

    In 80/10/10 the general idea is to get 80% of your calories from carbs, 10% from fat and 10% from protein.

    The majority of carb calories coming from fresh ripe fruit balanced out with greens. It's also believed that getting large amounts of calories from overt fats like nuts or avocados can cause grogginess and lack of energy. The amount of fruit you need to eat to get your calories requirements can seem pretty crazy but you get accustomed to it pretty quickly. I can also say that, for me personally, my energy picked up significantly and so did my mood once I transitioned to 80/10/10. I also completely lost my cravings for things that were tripping me up before. Especially bread, sweets, and coffee.

    There is a book, a few sites dedicated to 80/10/10 and plenty of people on general raw forums that are doing it, so if it interests you it's easy to find info about it.

  • well you could be going through a little detox, the first 3 days I went raw I felt like i was dying haha

    also in your salad, if you want more calories add a avocado, I believe a medium one is almost 300 calories.

    just think of stuff like that :)

  • Hi there !

    I am back and I followed some of your suggestions, the 1st being the green smoothie.

    I know how everyone writes that it makes all the difference, well I want to join in and say the same.

    Since 2 days I am having green smoothie for breakfast and thats really given me a lot of energy.

    btw, is it ok to make red smoothie too.. like today I dint have spinach, so I put in red lettuce type leaves in there..

    and I tasted my 1st avocado ever in my life yesterday ! it tasted, well different, I guess I will develop a taste for it slowly :)

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